The Store is a 1932

1932 in literature

The year 1932 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*E. V. Knox replaces Sir Owen Seaman as editor of Punch magazine.*Samuel Beckett's first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, is rejected by several publishers....

 novel by Thomas Sigismund Stribling

Thomas Sigismund Stribling

Thomas Sigismund Stribling was an American writer and lawyer who published under the name T.S. Stribling. He won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1933 for his novel The Store.-Life:...

. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1933. It is the second book of the Vaidan trilogy, comprising The Forge, The Store, and Unfinished Cathedral.

Introduction

Where The Forge opened up at the beginning of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 and ended with the abolition

Abolition

Abolish means to put an end to something or to stop something.Abolition may refer to:*Abolitionism *Abolition of death penalty *Abolition of monarchy*Prison abolition movement...

 of slavery, The Store picks up with the South establishing a new economic order.

Plot summary

Miltiades Vaiden and his wife own a profitable store in the small town of Florence, Alabama

Florence, Alabama

Florence is the county seat of Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States, in the northwestern corner of the state.According to the 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the city's population was 36,721....

where Vaiden has no qualms creating an artificial friendship with some of the newly free local blacks, or even the now economically desperate whites, cheating them out of their money to ensure his own success. Vaiden uses loose book keeping practices and heavy loan rates to ensure that he gains land from the unknowing blacks. Slowly, Vaiden is building a larger estate and bankroll at cost to the social trust between the people of Florence.